Re: Response to: Gummy smile and facial profile correction using miniscrew anchorage by Masato Kaku, Shunichi Kojima, Hiromi Sumi, Hiroyuki Koseki, Sara Abedini, Masahide Motokawa, Tadashi Fujita, Junji Ohtani, Toshitsugu Kawata, and Kazuo Tanne. Angle Orthod. 2012;82:170–177

To: Editor, The Angle Orthodontist

The nature of an excessive gingival display can be divided into several categories according to etiologic factors: abnormal dental eruption; excessive vertical growth of maxilla; and muscular.

Problem.1 In this case N-A was 61.5 mm (mean value of adult female was 63.7), showing no excessive vertical growth of the maxilla. The patient's FMA was 32.3° which is a standard for Japanese, indicating that she was an average angle case. Based on this information, we diagnosed that the patient had a dentoalveolar gummy smile without abnormal vertical growth of the maxilla. However, we agree that the relaxation of the maxillary labial muscle after the retraction might contribute to the correction of a gummy smile.

Actually, we can observe root resorption of incisors by panoramic radiograph. According to the previous study, the degree of root resorption after anterior teeth intrusion was score 2.2. We think score 2 was not so severe degree if we take account the 4mm of intrusion.